Tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks
Hi Folks Came across this interesting story http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-s... Excerpt: "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google<http://washpost.bloomberg.com/marketnews/stockdetail/?symbol=GOOG> ,Microsoft<http://washpost.bloomberg.com/marketnews/stockdetail/?symbol=MSFT> and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor." This proposal is in the US, but would be interesting to see, if developing countries with big user bases, could also use large scale public wi-fi n/ws instead of/in addition to, mobile telephony n/ws. Also, what about the relative costs of building a large scale public wifi n/w as opposed to a mobile telephony n/w, in a world where increasingly data dominates voice. cheers ashish
Independent of the regulatory challenges, even small scale community WiFi networks very hard to pull off. Shaddi (of TIER fame) wrote about this a few years back. He concludes, "I'm not saying mesh networks don't work ever...What I am saying is that unplanned wireless mesh networks never work at scale." Related: http://serverfault.com/questions/72767/why-is-internet-access-and-wi-fi-alwa... On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM, ashish makani <ashish.makani@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Folks
Came across this interesting story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-s...
Excerpt: "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.
The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google,Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor."
This proposal is in the US, but would be interesting to see, if developing countries with big user bases, could also use large scale public wi-fi n/ws instead of/in addition to, mobile telephony n/ws.
Also, what about the relative costs of building a large scale public wifi n/w as opposed to a mobile telephony n/w, in a world where increasingly data dominates voice.
cheers ashish
_______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
I don't think anyone's talking about mesh networks, are we? As far as wifi vs cell networks, that's a huge discussion. The biggest issues are ones of range and quality of service; cell networks are designed to go kilometers and provide basic guarantees for voice bandwidth. Wifi networks are not. However, given enough spare bandwidth (rough given the tragedy of commons) and in a dense urban situation, there's no particular reason you couldn't do all of your communications through one of these free networks. I'd be happy to field any more specific questions on the differences. On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Yaw Anokwa wrote:
Independent of the regulatory challenges, even small scale community WiFi networks very hard to pull off. Shaddi (of TIER fame) wrote about this a few years back. He concludes, "I'm not saying mesh networks don't work ever...What I am saying is that unplanned wireless mesh networks never work at scale."
Related: http://serverfault.com/questions/72767/why-is-internet-access-and-wi-fi-alwa...
On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM, ashish makani <ashish.makani@gmail.com<javascript:;>> wrote:
Hi Folks
Came across this interesting story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-s...
Excerpt: "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to
make
calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.
The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google,Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor."
This proposal is in the US, but would be interesting to see, if developing countries with big user bases, could also use large scale public wi-fi n/ws instead of/in addition to, mobile telephony n/ws.
Also, what about the relative costs of building a large scale public wifi n/w as opposed to a mobile telephony n/w, in a world where increasingly data dominates voice.
cheers ashish
_______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu <javascript:;> http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
_______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu <javascript:;> http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
Unlicensed spectrum is super important for innovation! Really the FCC is merely saying that a small portion of the spectrum (now owned by TV stations) should be allocated to the public domain - unlicensed (i.e. not sold at auction to be exclusively owned and controlled by a corporate entity). Mesh networks might be possible in that niche - but so could some other interesting and innovative ideas - tethered blimp networks anyone?. ;) Imagine what the world would be like if there was no such thing as an opensource license, and I think you understand why having some contextual space for different business models is important. I applaud the FCC for taking this step. I hope enough support lines up behind it. - James Dailey Seattle On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 9:21 AM, Kurtis Heimerl <kheimerl@cs.berkeley.edu>wrote:
I don't think anyone's talking about mesh networks, are we?
As far as wifi vs cell networks, that's a huge discussion. The biggest issues are ones of range and quality of service; cell networks are designed to go kilometers and provide basic guarantees for voice bandwidth. Wifi networks are not. However, given enough spare bandwidth (rough given the tragedy of commons) and in a dense urban situation, there's no particular reason you couldn't do all of your communications through one of these free networks.
I'd be happy to field any more specific questions on the differences.
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Yaw Anokwa wrote:
Independent of the regulatory challenges, even small scale community WiFi networks very hard to pull off. Shaddi (of TIER fame) wrote about this a few years back. He concludes, "I'm not saying mesh networks don't work ever...What I am saying is that unplanned wireless mesh networks never work at scale."
Related: http://serverfault.com/questions/72767/why-is-internet-access-and-wi-fi-alwa...
On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM, ashish makani <ashish.makani@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Folks
Came across this interesting story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-s...
Excerpt: "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to
make
calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.
The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google,Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor."
This proposal is in the US, but would be interesting to see, if developing countries with big user bases, could also use large scale public wi-fi n/ws instead of/in addition to, mobile telephony n/ws.
Also, what about the relative costs of building a large scale public wifi n/w as opposed to a mobile telephony n/w, in a world where increasingly data dominates voice.
cheers ashish
_______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
_______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
_______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
-- James Dailey skype: jdailey
participants (4)
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ashish makani
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James Dailey
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Kurtis Heimerl
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Yaw Anokwa